Reuters Fired Their Federally-Indicted Social Media Editor

Early Monday afternoon, Reuters fired its deputy social media editor Matthew Keys, who, five weeks ago, was federally indicted for allegedly collaborating with Anonymous to hack news sites run by the Tribune Company. In a twist that fits the strange nature of the story (and Keys's bizarre internet past), it was Keys himself who broke the news this afternoon in an announcement on Twitter.

Keys claims he wasn't fired because of the highly publicized indictment but instead because of his coverage of Thursday night's/Friday morning's manhunt for the Tsarneav brothers.

That coverage, which included tweeting incorrect information gathered from police scanners, apparently violated a written “final warning” Keys received from his manager at Reuters last fall. The warning, according to Keys's Tumblr post explaining the incident, was the result of, among other things, a parody Twitter account Keys created to mock Google CEO Larry Page. Keys, with the help of the Newspaper Guild of New York, plans to contest his firing.